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Saturday, November 26, 2016

The common cold is a common occurrence for me. During Winters, we practically meet and greet every morning. While I can say it's the only constant in my life, during sickness and health (because hey, I've learned to live with it), I despise it for very strong reasons like - sounding like a mouse during important meetings and having a red nose. But when I see people around me, who are prone to such things, I feel glad, because I'm not the only one with this petty sickness and with so many of them around me, nothing can truly bog me down. I revel in such things.

This afternoon, as I was watching the return of Gilmore Girls while dabbing tins of Vicks, I was called into the living room. My father had to introduce me to our really sweet landlord, who was sorry about the loss of my mother. He talked about the pain he went through when he lost his father, and when his wife lost her's at a very tender age. This brings me to a strange thought - Do we feel better when we know that we are surrounded with people who experience similar forms of pain and confusion like us? Does it make us feel that we aren't alone in this and that at every junction of life, we'll meet people who have overcome the struggles and losses of their life?

Most of the times, we crave the company of people when we are truly happy or when we want to celebrate our victories or promotions. In sadness, we claim that we want to be left alone. However, whenever we come across stories of loss that happen to people we know, hear of, or even fictional heroes, we understand that pain and loss are a part and parcel of everything we do. It certainly is comforting to know that we're not alone in this, even when we say we are.

So what is it? Do we basically feel secure when people around us are going through similar stuff that we are experiencing? Or are we just selfish even in the pursuit of this whole thing?